Chapter 46

3. The God of Abundant Fruit

When we left the shop, the sky was dyed with the colors of sunset.

Remembering the colors of the countless scars in the stone chamber made me feel awful.

Karigane spoke while carrying a navy bag on her back.

"What are we going to do now?"

Kirima answered bitterly.

"We'll continue the investigation."

"I see... Then try going to the other side of the bridge."

"What's over there?"

Karigane shook her head and said nothing.

I blurted out without thinking.

"Hey, aren't you gonna say something like 'do something about it'?"

Kirima and Karigane both gave me a puzzled look at the same time.

"You're being tormented by the sound of the bells, right?"

The figure crouching on that bridge looked just like me. I understood well the irrational torment of being haunted by something that shouldn't exist.

"It's fine. Our ancestors did it, so it's only natural we're cursed."

"But it's not like you did it yourself."

Karigane looked a bit taken aback, then snorted.

"Unemployed and still kind. Good luck with that."

Without another word, she took a wide detour around the bridge and left.

"Being unemployed has nothing to do with it..."

A sound escaped my throat, and dimples appeared on Kirima's pitch-black, tanned face. So he can smile.

"What?"

"Now you finally seem like a proper task force."

Kirima smacked me on the back.

It felt like getting rear-ended by a truck.

We returned to the riverbank late at night.

The river rippled quietly like a giant black serpent.

Even at night, when foot traffic ceased, the red bridge was brightly illuminated, evoking the image of the gates of hell.

I hated crossing the bridge, but there was no other way.

The bridge, far too sturdy for a village preserving scenery from all eras, pushed back against the soles of my feet with each step.

"So what now?"

I shouted loudly to drown out the sound of the bells.

"Shut up. What if we get noticed?"

After crossing the bridge, Kirima took out a penlight.

"Gods are created by faith. Even if it's a sham, the girl who was a Human Pillar became identified with the god through that legend. That's why she's bound to this place."

"Then you're saying we should free the girl? How?"

Kirima fell silent.

On the other side of the bridge was a large embankment. It was probably a makeshift levee before the bridge was built. The earthen wall blended with the darkness, its boundaries unclear.

Mixed with the sound of insects, a clear ringing of bells echoed.

"The quickest way is to expose the whole truth."

Kirima kept walking and looked at me.

"The girl didn't go to the god willingly. If people knew that, maybe they'd stop deifying her, and she could find some peace."

"It's pointless. People only believe what they want to believe. Do you think they'd just abandon their faith after their village's misdeeds are exposed?"

"Yeah..."

In reality, some villagers must have noticed how strange the legend is. Their overly pious behavior is probably just a way to avoid facing their guilt.

Kirima waved the light around.

"But what was Karigane trying to show us?"

The entire embankment, illuminated by the beam of light, was filled with countless holes.

Like a beehive—or maybe station lockers.

Square holes reinforced with stone were evenly dug into the earthen wall. The holes had depth, and the darkness inside looked like it held black water.

"What the hell is this..."

"They're horizontal burial chambers."

Kirima answered, staring up at the wall in astonishment.

"It's a burial style from the Kofun period. They carved into bedrock to make a main chamber to bury the dead, and a passageway for access."

"They built this many?"

"Yeah, usually they're grouped together. Sometimes a single hole would be reused many times... But I didn't know they existed in this area."

As I approached one of the holes, something like hair flew out and tickled my nose. Kirima turned around at my scream.

"What happened!"

When I shone the light on it, what had looked like dried female hair turned out to be something like a straw mat.

"Why the hell is something like this here..."

Kirima let out a sigh of disbelief.

"It's called a seburi. In the past, nomadic workers who traveled from place to place used to sleep in holes like these. It was common until about twenty years ago."

The bells rang sharply, like they were stuck to my eardrums.

It was cooler than during the day, yet I couldn't stop sweating.

Why would someone who slept here leave behind such valuable bedding?

"That..."

I pointed at the mat in Kirima's hand. Straw fell from it, along with something greasier than straw.

It was hair, as if it had been ripped out.

The mat Kirima dropped spread across the gravel path. A hole had opened in the center, and a bloodstain had spread around it.

The bells rang. All at once.

It wasn't the sound of a pitiful girl begging for help. It was the worst kind of sound—like mocking someone pleading for their life.

From one of the holes came a dragging sound, like something forcing its way through a narrow passage, scraping against the walls.

Kirima pointed the light toward the sound, then aimed it downward.

There was a sound from below as well.

Scrape, scrape. Jingle, jingle.

The sound of crawling and the bells echoed together.

"What is happening..."

Kirima switched the flashlight to his left hand and reached into his coat with his right.

In the oval-shaped beam of light, a face appeared.

A face was peeking out from one of the stone chambers.

It was the swollen and darkened face of a young woman.

"Father... Mother..."

Her swollen lips moved. Sobbing, the woman stuck out her tongue. At the tip was a black, rusted bell.

Jingle. The woman gave a gruesome smile.

Her head tilted like a ripe fruit falling, brushing against my knee. The back of the stone chamber bulged, and round things spilled out.

Countless shriveled human heads.

All the faces were smiling, and on their mocking tongues sat bells. Abundant fruit.

Jingle jingle jingle.

The fallen woman's head looked up at me.

"Useless!"

Kirima pulled me by the shoulder. A bursting sound drowned out the bells.

A shell dropped from the gun Kirima had drawn, and a round hole opened in the woman's forehead.

Dead leaves and mud poured from the stone chamber, and long claws gripped the earthen wall. Bells were tied to the claws with string.

"Retreat!"

Kirima grabbed my shoulder and started running.

The earth of the embankment collapsed, and the sound of crumbling echoed.

The bells rang sharply.

Without looking back, Kirima and I ran toward the bridge.

"What the hell is going on...!"

A sharp sound rang out right beside my face. Kirima and I rolled away to dodge. The red bridge's support was scraped, and fragments scattered.

"Just get up!"

Urged by Kirima, I stood up. This was the worst.

A long shadow like a mummy's arm slithered out, and the bells rang.

It was trying to wrap around the bridge's support. Can't it climb onto the bridge?

Kirima and I dashed straight to the center of the bridge.

"What the hell is that god?!"

Kirima replied, panting.

"Damn it, sorry. I was completely wrong..."

"What?"

"The god here isn't the murdered girl. It's a monstrous evil god."

The bridge shook violently, and amidst the sound of water, I heard the bells.

"It wasn't that the bridge needed human pillars... From the start, the god here was raging in the river, demanding sacrifices to stop."

"You're kidding..."

"That side tomb must've been where they put the sacrifices. In modern times, they pretended to rent it out to nomads and fed them to it."

I was speechless. This was the worst village yet.

"Then, the sound of the bells...?"

Kirima shook his head with a pale face.

"The girl rang the bells for help, and her parents came. That god figured if it rang the bells, more sacrifices would show up."

"So when the bells started ringing louder recently, it meant it was demanding a new one..."

Countless heads peeked out from the red railing. The bells rang steadily.

I thought it couldn't climb onto the bridge.

Kirima shoved me.

A flash of long claws grazed Kirima's side. In the darkness, I saw his shirt stained red.

"Kirima!"

Behind the crouching Kirima, I saw the monster's head. I grabbed the fallen gun and fired a shot.

The monster fell beneath the bridge. Damn it.

I leaned over the railing and jumped down into the grass below.

Gravity crashed down on me, and pain shot through my legs. No time to worry.

I could tell the god was rising nearby.

I took off running toward the bridge girder. The bells followed.

My target was the stone chamber directly beneath the bridge.

I saw the small shrine of stone and wood. I picked up speed and dove to the ground in a straight line to the shrine.

The sound of bells and a shadow passed over me. The massive body slipped into the hole.

The shadow writhed in the burrow. I kicked the shrine apart. A face buried in wood and stone looked up at me.

"This is your doing, isn't it!"

I hurled rocks at it. I kept throwing wood and stone until I couldn't hear the bells anymore.

I covered it with dirt and stomped it down with my soles over and over.

Light brightened from behind, and the morning sun shone.

I couldn't hear the bells. The collapsed shrine and the stone chamber were hidden in the grass.

When I returned to the bridge, Kirima was sitting down.

"You okay...?"

Nodding, Kirima had tied his torn jacket to stop the bleeding. It didn't look too serious.

I supported Kirima's shoulder and walked across the bridge.

The village was still fast asleep.

A pure blue light bathed the area, making it look like the bottom of a river.

When we reached the bus stop, the first bus had just arrived.

The conductor looked at our mud- and blood-covered bodies with suspicion, but didn't refuse us boarding.

We collapsed into the very back seat.

"What do we do about that village?"

"If we report what happened, the countermeasure headquarters will probably try to classify it as an evil god."

"Can they even do that?"

"Apparently they've done it before. I'm against it, though. If they interfere carelessly, it could make things worse."

"What if we don't report it?"

"Then it'll be left alone. In that case, more people might get hurt because of that god."

I fell silent. The people in that village are evil.

But some believe the legends without knowing the truth. Like Karigane, who accepts fate.

As if seeing through my thoughts, Kirima smirked.

"Humans can't control gods. We don't have the right to judge others either."

"Then what's the right thing to do?"

"There is no right answer. Just don't stop thinking."

Kirima removed his black gloves and brushed back his disheveled bangs.

There was a thin ring on his left ring finger.

"Do you have a kid?"

"...Yeah."

"Then don't go rushing to your death."

Kirima looked away and stared out the window.

No matter how you look at it, we don't look like brothers.

But before my brother worked himself to death, he had that same expression. I decided to stop thinking about it.

The bus started moving with a gentle vibration.